In #BallpointAdventures for July 4, 2016, #BillyBallpoint challenges the #MainStreamMedia!

Click here to see the full-size comic strip!
support: patreon.thepete.com buy: Inkstreme Ballpoint Adventures
caffeinate: coffee.thepete.xyz

This has been bugging me for YEARS and it's not the first time I've dealt with it in BA. The worst of it is...
...people CONSTANTLY make excuses for this sort of phone-in-journalism by pointing to certain "exceptional" reporters who actually don't roll over immediately.  Usually, what this means is that the reporters mutter something incredulous and then move on.  Like when Donald Trump mentioned that he didn't know anything about David Duke or the KKK and Jake Tapper said, almost under his breath "it's just the Klan" and then gave up the ghost.

Here is an example of what I would like to see all the time in the US:

I asked the Saudi ambassador to the UN why he supports democracy in Syria but not in Saudi Arabia - @AJUpFront clip:https://t.co/bblCAHCdZS

— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) March 25, 2016

If the video doesn't play for you, check out the tweet I found it in here: https://twitter.com/mehdirhasan/status/713361161161408512

Watch the Mehdi Hasan nail the Saudi ambassador over and over!!  That is what I call "challenging the powers that be" aka "a journalist doing the job."

Democracy, as a thing, doesn't work without an informed populace (aka you and me).  This is why we need our reporters to be assholes to our leaders both corporate and political.  We can't make the best decisions without knowing what is really going on!

In other news, if you could support me on Patreon or by buying my long-form comic, INKSTREME BALLPOINT ADVENTURES, I'd really appreciate it!  Thanks! You can also just buy me a coffee!